A MARRIED At First Sight expert has revealed what the boozy contestant dinner parties are really like, as the new series gets under way.
Charlene Douglas joins Paul C. Brunson and Mel Schilling on the hit reality dating show, and the trio are often seen in disbelief as they watch the drama between the brides and grooms unfold.
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Now, Charlene has told us what it’s really like to be sat there watching from the experts’ hidden location at a MAFS dinner party.
“I mean, they go on for a very long time,” Charlene revealed, adding: “It’s funny, because there are so many conversations happening that you want to just get involved in.
“You want to be a part of absolutely everything, and sometimes the cameras sort of focus on one couple, but you’re just like ‘Oh, no, there’s something going on over there,’ and you’re trying to listen in.
“And I think what’s really, really interesting is that a lot of couples will decide to whisper so they don’t get heard.
“But of course, when they whisper they forget there are microphones attached to them, so they forget they are actually going to be heard.”
Charlene continued: “That’s always really interesting. The whispering and the eye contact, the frowning and the amount that’s captured at that dinner party that people are not aware of is amazing, and it makes great TV, really amazing TV.
“But I think the moral of the story is don’t whisper because you’re going to get caught out.”
Charlene also said there was a moment that happens at the dinner party this series which left her speechless.
She explained: “A moment at a dinner party left me speechless, and I’m very rarely speechless.
“It was something that I didn’t expect to happen. But the thing is, we’re not with the couples when they’re in their apartments and when they’re doing their activities during the week, so you can never really be sure what’s going to happen next.
“And sometimes you watch your dinner party and you think, Oh, everyone looks really happy, you know, great body language, and then someone just drops a bombshell, and you’re like, whoa!”
Former MAFS contestant Amy Christophers once opened up to The Sun about the iconic dinner parties too.
Amy, who appeared on the 2021 series, says half the reason the MAFS cast get so pent up is they’re left starving from the “f*****g awful” food.
That, and the fact they’ve been filming since 8:30am and sometimes don’t finish until 3am.
She also reveals there are secret rooms where the cast are held before the mixer – to ensure they don’t speak to other couples beforehand – and before the dinner, to help them “sober up”.
Amy explains: “You’ll be sat waiting in a room, and then they move you out of it, and into a different room.
“And slowly, you get closer and closer to the party – and you’re staggered out so you don’t see the other couples before you walk in, and you have no idea what order you’re going in.”
During the mixer, as couples start chatting, they’re allowed to drink alcohol – and Amy says there’s no limit.
But afterwards she claims they have to go back to their holding rooms to “basically sober up” while the producers set up the dinner party scene.
“Sometimes that’d be an hour, sometimes it’d be two hours,” she recalls.
Amy – who is dairy and gluten-free – says while the food looks delicious on camera, in reality it was always cold and in her case, inedible.
She explains: “The dinner party usually went on ‘til 3am. They were long days and I didn’t eat.
“The food was f*****g awful, so I’d be drinking but also starving, and everybody’s eating around me.
“The food was always cold as well, because it had been sat out.
“Some people were smacking it in their mouth, but it wasn’t for me. I think there was only one dinner party where I actually enjoyed the food and I think that was near the end.”
Amy also explained that when it kicks off at a dinner party and someone storms out in tears one of the contestants usually follows.
But Amy says the person who consoles them is usually picked by the production team, regardless of whether they’re actually friends.
“They would have just picked someone and been like, ‘You two got on at the hen party’,” she says.
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“Because they want to find out what’s going on in that couple, they’ll ask somebody to go and take somebody for a chat.
“During my series they would choose really random people. They would just get people that weren’t friends to go and talk.”
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